A few weeks ago I wasn't going to do D2R2, fearing I didn't have enough miles in my legs to make it worth while. After some solid rides, I figured I might as well at least do the 100k loop since I already paid for it before breaking my ankle. Fitness is still coming back. I'm not far off anymore, maybe less than 5% in a one hour effort. Five minute effort, probably still have a lot more ground to make up. But this doesn't matter much for D2R2. It is all about metering out your kilojoules steadily. So I'm committed to doing the whole thing now, rolling out at 6am with hundreds of others.
After a two hour solo hammer ride at lunch on Tuesday (Uncanoonuc/Chestnut loop), I backed down on intensity for the rest of the week. I have this rule I follow when seeking an honest recovery ride. If I have to open my mouth to breath, I'm going way too hard. I have a very narrow nasal passage, so nose breathing puts a strict governor on intensity, well within conversation pace. It works better than a power meter or HRM. You can only go as hard as oxygen supply permits.
Wednesday I did my typical semi-flat 14.4 mile recovery loop on my Dean road bike. It has 23mm racing tires on with aero wheels. The loop took me just over 46 minutes. I had reservations about bringing beefy knobby tires to D2R2 this year, as I fear they roll so much slower than the 28mm road tires I've used the last two times at D2R2. The course is expected to be very loose and bumpy this year though, and organizers pleaded with roadies to reconsider 25mm road tires. I have 35mm Schwalbe Racing Ralph clinchers on my CX bike right now. I successfully raced these last fall at Ironcross. They seemed fast on that course, but that is such a subjective thing. Thursday I rode my D2R2 bike on my recovery loop at the same "breath through my nose" pace. I was stunned to finish the loop within seconds of the same time on my road bike. I expected at least 2mph slower. The Schwalbe's were inflated to about 70psi. Of course, there could be wind variations or I could have breathed a little harder on Schwalbe's. It wasn't exactly a blind study.
If I'm giving up little at low to moderate speeds on pavement with these balloon tires, I will probably gain a lot of net speed vs road slicks over the D2R2 course this year. My primary concern is is total energy expenditure, not how fast I can complete D2R2. Done that a few times now. I do want to finish without extraordinary suffer factor. I suspect this year folks riding skinny road tires will suffer more than usual.
I will be going new school style, not in the spirit of randonneuring. A GPS will be my guide. It appears this year's route is identical to last year, so I scavenged a promising looking 2009 track from Garmin Connect, down sampled it on GPSies, then loaded it up on my Edge 705. Not sure what to make of the five mile "bonus" loop at the end. Who plans on doing it? It will bring the ride total up to about 185km.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Ankle Therapy
After breakfast on Sunday, Cathy and I checked out of our luxurious accommodations. The food was fantastic at the Old Tavern Inn. They bring fresh baked scones when seating you for breakfast. They are infinitely better than the ones at Starbucks. Real fresh squeezed orange juice, real butter, and real maple syrup are just a few of the other nice touches we enjoyed there. A hike seemed a good way to cap off a three day weekend. We loaded up the car and headed to Jaffrey, NH.
Cathy and I have driven by Mt Monadnock many times when the mountain taunted us to hike it. I've only hiked it once, about 10 years ago when my mother was over. Cathy has hiked it several times with other people since then. I had strong reservations about tackling such a technical climb. This climb lies right in that perfect middle ground, where it is not all hands and feet scrambling nor all smooth path. It is non-stop ankle biter terrain. This aggressive climb would quickly tell me if my ankle was fully healed or not. I was going to wear my lace-up support. I probably needed to worry about rolling my good ankle more than anything else.
The summit was socked in with clouds when we first saw the mountain, but the cloud deck lifted just enough to clear the summit by noon. I had no trouble climbing the White Dot trail. Climbing big step-ups at an aggressive pace is just like riding a bicycle up a steep grade. My body is well conditioned for it. My ankle felt stable. It is all concentric muscle contraction. Cathy found going up aerobically challenging, but with hundreds of people going up the mountain, nobody passed us on the climb. I paused a couple times for Cathy, logging less than an hour of moving time. We overheard other people three hours into their climb and still only 3/4 of the way up.
It was wicked windy up top and cold at first, until the sweat dried up. Then it was pleasant. Despite low cloud deck, visibility was probably greater than 50 miles. I reached the summit a few minutes before Cathy did. I was watching for her, wondering where she went. Then I hear a woman squeal behind me, see someone topple over, slide on their back into a crevasse and was unable to get out. It was Cathy! She came up from a slightly different direction and when she saw me, she took a misstep. Other than a scrape on her arm, she was all right. Freaked everybody out up there though. After chowing on fruit and Vermont cheese and crackers, we started heading back down. We would take a slightly different route down, the White Cross trail.
The descent is what weirded me out. I never roll ankles on climbs. I barely used my hands climbing the mountain but used them continuously while descending. Then some little four year old kid comes flying by me, parallel feet hoping from big boulder to big boulder. Was I ever able to do that? What I wouldn't give to be that nimble again. My ankle was doing fine. My knees where a whole different matter.
It is the eccentric muscle contraction that kills me on descents. This is where your muscle elongates while under tension. Normally while riding a bike, muscles contract while under tension. The eccentric contraction is a whole different beast and it responsible for most DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) people get. I can get terrible shin splints from hiking down steep grades. And tender knees. I really need to do more of this. I think it would make me less prone to injury, although hiking like this is very risky initially, until I toughen up. More weight bearing activity like this would help my skiing too.
Cathy had no trouble staying with me on the descent, and I went as fast as I dared. She no doubt could smoke me down this mountain if she tried. She runs throughout the year, so she did not feel any of the weaknesses I did. The good news is this 2.3 hour hike did not bother my injured ankle any more than my right ankle. I'd have to say that is about as close to 100% full recovery as you can get. I do need to do one of two things though. I either need to buy a second ankle support so I reduce risk of rolling either ankle, or I need to do more impacty weight bearing activities to strengthen my lower legs. One is easy way out, the other is right thing to do. I have poor track record on committing to things that do not directly make pedals go around.
After the hike, we went to Kimball Farms in Jaffrey. I've heard many people rave about their lobster rolls there. I've never been to this Kimball Farms, but I've been to the one in Westford Mass several times for icecream. Then I saw the lobster rolls were $16.95. They can't be that good. Too rich for my Dutch blood. I opted for a fish sandwich platter and large bowl of pistachio icecream afterwards. That was twice the size of the Ben and Jerry's I had the day before, easily over 1200 calories worth. I told myself I earned it.
It was so nice in the evening when we got home, I just had to jump on a mountain bike for an hour. I was dismayed to see the hill behind my house is finally getting developed. Maybe the economy is turning around. Last I heard, large "estate" homes were going to be built up there. When I moved to Pelham 13 years ago, I had a 40 mile ATV trail network right from my neighborhood. There were many 400+ foot peaks to climb. Now the network has been fragmented by development, and police have cracked down on illegal ATV use. When ATVs lose, I lose too. They keep the trails rideable. It was a great weekend, logging over 10 hours of aerobic activity and around 14,000 feet of climbing.
Cathy and I have driven by Mt Monadnock many times when the mountain taunted us to hike it. I've only hiked it once, about 10 years ago when my mother was over. Cathy has hiked it several times with other people since then. I had strong reservations about tackling such a technical climb. This climb lies right in that perfect middle ground, where it is not all hands and feet scrambling nor all smooth path. It is non-stop ankle biter terrain. This aggressive climb would quickly tell me if my ankle was fully healed or not. I was going to wear my lace-up support. I probably needed to worry about rolling my good ankle more than anything else.
The summit was socked in with clouds when we first saw the mountain, but the cloud deck lifted just enough to clear the summit by noon. I had no trouble climbing the White Dot trail. Climbing big step-ups at an aggressive pace is just like riding a bicycle up a steep grade. My body is well conditioned for it. My ankle felt stable. It is all concentric muscle contraction. Cathy found going up aerobically challenging, but with hundreds of people going up the mountain, nobody passed us on the climb. I paused a couple times for Cathy, logging less than an hour of moving time. We overheard other people three hours into their climb and still only 3/4 of the way up.
Cathy scrambling up steep section.
It was wicked windy up top and cold at first, until the sweat dried up. Then it was pleasant. Despite low cloud deck, visibility was probably greater than 50 miles. I reached the summit a few minutes before Cathy did. I was watching for her, wondering where she went. Then I hear a woman squeal behind me, see someone topple over, slide on their back into a crevasse and was unable to get out. It was Cathy! She came up from a slightly different direction and when she saw me, she took a misstep. Other than a scrape on her arm, she was all right. Freaked everybody out up there though. After chowing on fruit and Vermont cheese and crackers, we started heading back down. We would take a slightly different route down, the White Cross trail.
Summit view, looking north.
The descent is what weirded me out. I never roll ankles on climbs. I barely used my hands climbing the mountain but used them continuously while descending. Then some little four year old kid comes flying by me, parallel feet hoping from big boulder to big boulder. Was I ever able to do that? What I wouldn't give to be that nimble again. My ankle was doing fine. My knees where a whole different matter.
Cathy coming up section that would later give me
the willies going back down.
It is the eccentric muscle contraction that kills me on descents. This is where your muscle elongates while under tension. Normally while riding a bike, muscles contract while under tension. The eccentric contraction is a whole different beast and it responsible for most DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) people get. I can get terrible shin splints from hiking down steep grades. And tender knees. I really need to do more of this. I think it would make me less prone to injury, although hiking like this is very risky initially, until I toughen up. More weight bearing activity like this would help my skiing too.
Don't need to show the profile for this one. Many sections
were over 60% grade.
Cathy had no trouble staying with me on the descent, and I went as fast as I dared. She no doubt could smoke me down this mountain if she tried. She runs throughout the year, so she did not feel any of the weaknesses I did. The good news is this 2.3 hour hike did not bother my injured ankle any more than my right ankle. I'd have to say that is about as close to 100% full recovery as you can get. I do need to do one of two things though. I either need to buy a second ankle support so I reduce risk of rolling either ankle, or I need to do more impacty weight bearing activities to strengthen my lower legs. One is easy way out, the other is right thing to do. I have poor track record on committing to things that do not directly make pedals go around.
After the hike, we went to Kimball Farms in Jaffrey. I've heard many people rave about their lobster rolls there. I've never been to this Kimball Farms, but I've been to the one in Westford Mass several times for icecream. Then I saw the lobster rolls were $16.95. They can't be that good. Too rich for my Dutch blood. I opted for a fish sandwich platter and large bowl of pistachio icecream afterwards. That was twice the size of the Ben and Jerry's I had the day before, easily over 1200 calories worth. I told myself I earned it.
It was so nice in the evening when we got home, I just had to jump on a mountain bike for an hour. I was dismayed to see the hill behind my house is finally getting developed. Maybe the economy is turning around. Last I heard, large "estate" homes were going to be built up there. When I moved to Pelham 13 years ago, I had a 40 mile ATV trail network right from my neighborhood. There were many 400+ foot peaks to climb. Now the network has been fragmented by development, and police have cracked down on illegal ATV use. When ATVs lose, I lose too. They keep the trails rideable. It was a great weekend, logging over 10 hours of aerobic activity and around 14,000 feet of climbing.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Dirt Road Enduro
Got a good fix in today. I hit my favorite dirt road climb in New England and explored many more miles of forest service road in the southern Green Mountains of Vermont. The plan was to park in West Wardsboro, just 30 minutes from our inn, climb up to Kelly Stand, do a big loop, then come back down to West Wardsboro. The plan quickly fell apart.
Sitting on the porch of the Old Tavern Inn sipping coffee at 7am, Cathy and I could see our breath in the air. Perfect riding weather I thought. We each had a comparatively big day of riding. Cathy planned to do a 32 mile loop right from the inn, which included a nasty steep 1200ft paved climb and a long, gradual, dirt descent back to Grafton. We thought about bringing the tandem, but Cathy is not too keen about the tandem in mountain country.
I parked at the general store in West Wardsboro. It is at the base of Kelly Stand Rd (called Arlington Rd on that side). I no more than start riding than I start seeing signs about bridge out, road closed. Hmmm, it is Saturday, I know the stream, so if the bridge was actually out, I'll just walk across at the road crossing. As I near the bridge area, I see a full crew is working with big equipment right where the bridge was supposed to be. There was no way I was crossing there. So now what? The banks down to the stream were steep and all boulders. How do you scale that in cleats without rolling an ankle over, especially a weak ankle? The other side looked pretty dense too. I found a spot to get down to the stream, got wet feet, then proceeded to bush-whack for 10 minutes working my way back to the road past the bridge work. Little did I know the road crosses the stream twice, so I had to cross it twice and scale boulders twice. That cost me a nice chunk of time and ice cold feet in the nippy morning air.
It didn't take long to warm up though. Arlington Rd is east facing, and the day would warm considerably in brilliant sun. The rest of my body was soon soaked from climbing the steady grade.
Just shy of the high point of Kelly Stand Rd is another seasonal forest service road that runs south for about 14 miles to Rt 9. It climbs a little initially, but then slowly drops altitude for the next 12 miles. This would be my first time riding it, having heard reports that it is another great dirt road to hit in the area. I was a bit perplexed to see one of those big "Recovery Act" signs you see on the highway in the middle of nowhere in the Green Mountains. Apparently improving seasonal fireroads is worth increasing our debt to the rest of the world.
I gathered the work done on FS71 was a new bed of gravel. The initial descent was rather hairball. Very hard packed, but a lot of big, loose stones on top. I was constantly ricocheting rocks off trees in the woods. Glad I had some grippy CX tires, although a little less than 80psi would have been nice. Further down, the gravel mix changed to a much finer aggregate and was a blast to ride. Speeds of 20-25mph could be held most of the time with minimal effort. I think for the first 9 miles, I didn't encounter a single person. Once the new gravel gets well packed, this road could be nice on a road bike. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.
All good things eventually come to an end. After a total stretch of about 17 miles of dirt, I picked up Rt 9 and headed towards Bennington. This was busy, and it climbed at 10-12% grades for a while. At least this portion was repaved with wide shoulders. You know it is steep when there's a run-away truck ramp every half mile. After many rollers, the final plummet from Prospect Mountain begins. I've always wanted to ride Rt 9, despite it being a busy road. This was my first, and this several mile descent at 40-45mph was just what my legs needed.
After topping fluids off, I headed north on East Rd. This climbs out of the Bennington bowl, paved at first, turning to gravel before reaching the top. Then it is gravel all the way down to Arlington. No traffic, and smooth as butter. I was close to the lowest point of the ride, and the 2000ft dirt Kelly Stand climb was next. Having over three hours of fairly hard tempo riding in my legs by this point, I was wondering how I was going to get over it. The good thing is it is never steep. The rushing stream and deep canyon walls take your mind off the suffering. Lot of campers along this road, and a little camper traffic too.
Coming down the other side, I was going to try the detour around the bridge that I noted on my climb. I figured the detour was part way up from the car, so it probably still all went down, but just maybe added a couple miles. Boy was I wrong. I scored a nice bonus climb, in fact. The detour started up on pavement for just a bit, but then turned onto dirt Penny Ave. Apparently I was going to hit my toughest climb last. I had no idea where or how high this was going. The easy parts were 12% grade, and hard parts held 18%. Glad I hadn't reach bonk stage yet, else there would have been cussing. Eventually it pops out on Rt 100. I knew there was a pass on Rt 100 just north of Mt Snow Ski Area, and I had to be close to it. So instead of turning left to bomb back down to my car, I went up. I immediately had a rabbit on road bike to chase. When I caught him and asked how far to top, he said almost there. Sweet. So now I bagged an unnamed pass that I've always wanted to check out. Bombing down on the north side of this reminded me of bombing down Terrible Mountain into Ludlow. A thousand foot plummet was a nice way to end this ride, especially being a thousand feet I hadn't planned on.
I logged 76 miles in 4.9 hours with about 7000 feet of climbing for the ride. About half the ride was on dirt roads. I needed major replenishments. A pint of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia fit the bill nicely. Only 960 calories and two days worth of saturated fats.
Not sure what we'll do on Sunday. Neither of us will have legs for more riding. Since we drive right past Mt Monadnock, we might go for a hike. Hope I don't roll an ankle. My physical therapist told me I needed to do more impacty weight bearing stuff. She didn't like the mobility of either of my ankles. Cycling and desk job don't build optimal lower leg strength.
Sitting on the porch of the Old Tavern Inn sipping coffee at 7am, Cathy and I could see our breath in the air. Perfect riding weather I thought. We each had a comparatively big day of riding. Cathy planned to do a 32 mile loop right from the inn, which included a nasty steep 1200ft paved climb and a long, gradual, dirt descent back to Grafton. We thought about bringing the tandem, but Cathy is not too keen about the tandem in mountain country.
I parked at the general store in West Wardsboro. It is at the base of Kelly Stand Rd (called Arlington Rd on that side). I no more than start riding than I start seeing signs about bridge out, road closed. Hmmm, it is Saturday, I know the stream, so if the bridge was actually out, I'll just walk across at the road crossing. As I near the bridge area, I see a full crew is working with big equipment right where the bridge was supposed to be. There was no way I was crossing there. So now what? The banks down to the stream were steep and all boulders. How do you scale that in cleats without rolling an ankle over, especially a weak ankle? The other side looked pretty dense too. I found a spot to get down to the stream, got wet feet, then proceeded to bush-whack for 10 minutes working my way back to the road past the bridge work. Little did I know the road crosses the stream twice, so I had to cross it twice and scale boulders twice. That cost me a nice chunk of time and ice cold feet in the nippy morning air.
It didn't take long to warm up though. Arlington Rd is east facing, and the day would warm considerably in brilliant sun. The rest of my body was soon soaked from climbing the steady grade.
Just shy of the high point of Kelly Stand Rd is another seasonal forest service road that runs south for about 14 miles to Rt 9. It climbs a little initially, but then slowly drops altitude for the next 12 miles. This would be my first time riding it, having heard reports that it is another great dirt road to hit in the area. I was a bit perplexed to see one of those big "Recovery Act" signs you see on the highway in the middle of nowhere in the Green Mountains. Apparently improving seasonal fireroads is worth increasing our debt to the rest of the world.
FS71 is north to south portion in center.
I gathered the work done on FS71 was a new bed of gravel. The initial descent was rather hairball. Very hard packed, but a lot of big, loose stones on top. I was constantly ricocheting rocks off trees in the woods. Glad I had some grippy CX tires, although a little less than 80psi would have been nice. Further down, the gravel mix changed to a much finer aggregate and was a blast to ride. Speeds of 20-25mph could be held most of the time with minimal effort. I think for the first 9 miles, I didn't encounter a single person. Once the new gravel gets well packed, this road could be nice on a road bike. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.
A view from FS71.
All good things eventually come to an end. After a total stretch of about 17 miles of dirt, I picked up Rt 9 and headed towards Bennington. This was busy, and it climbed at 10-12% grades for a while. At least this portion was repaved with wide shoulders. You know it is steep when there's a run-away truck ramp every half mile. After many rollers, the final plummet from Prospect Mountain begins. I've always wanted to ride Rt 9, despite it being a busy road. This was my first, and this several mile descent at 40-45mph was just what my legs needed.
After topping fluids off, I headed north on East Rd. This climbs out of the Bennington bowl, paved at first, turning to gravel before reaching the top. Then it is gravel all the way down to Arlington. No traffic, and smooth as butter. I was close to the lowest point of the ride, and the 2000ft dirt Kelly Stand climb was next. Having over three hours of fairly hard tempo riding in my legs by this point, I was wondering how I was going to get over it. The good thing is it is never steep. The rushing stream and deep canyon walls take your mind off the suffering. Lot of campers along this road, and a little camper traffic too.
Coming down the other side, I was going to try the detour around the bridge that I noted on my climb. I figured the detour was part way up from the car, so it probably still all went down, but just maybe added a couple miles. Boy was I wrong. I scored a nice bonus climb, in fact. The detour started up on pavement for just a bit, but then turned onto dirt Penny Ave. Apparently I was going to hit my toughest climb last. I had no idea where or how high this was going. The easy parts were 12% grade, and hard parts held 18%. Glad I hadn't reach bonk stage yet, else there would have been cussing. Eventually it pops out on Rt 100. I knew there was a pass on Rt 100 just north of Mt Snow Ski Area, and I had to be close to it. So instead of turning left to bomb back down to my car, I went up. I immediately had a rabbit on road bike to chase. When I caught him and asked how far to top, he said almost there. Sweet. So now I bagged an unnamed pass that I've always wanted to check out. Bombing down on the north side of this reminded me of bombing down Terrible Mountain into Ludlow. A thousand foot plummet was a nice way to end this ride, especially being a thousand feet I hadn't planned on.
The little kicker at the end hurt more than the
monster Kelly Stand climb.
I logged 76 miles in 4.9 hours with about 7000 feet of climbing for the ride. About half the ride was on dirt roads. I needed major replenishments. A pint of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia fit the bill nicely. Only 960 calories and two days worth of saturated fats.
Not sure what we'll do on Sunday. Neither of us will have legs for more riding. Since we drive right past Mt Monadnock, we might go for a hike. Hope I don't roll an ankle. My physical therapist told me I needed to do more impacty weight bearing stuff. She didn't like the mobility of either of my ankles. Cycling and desk job don't build optimal lower leg strength.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Mt Tabor Rd
Mrs. Hill Junkie and I are spending the weekend at Old Tavern Inn in Grafton, Vermont. A pretty swank place to stay, breakfast and dinner included, thanks to the owner's support of last years BUMPS challenge.
Grafton is a very mountainous area. A few main paved roads link up the villages around here, but most back roads are dirt and go up. Cathy is not exactly the hillclimb fiend I am. In fact, it might be better to call her the Anti-Hill Junkie instead of Mrs. Hill Junkie. She's heard enough BS from me over the years about how easy the climb is going to be, or it's just like some other really easy climb. We'll, I finally found a climb we both can enjoy, but not necessarily together.
Mt Tabor Rd, also known as Forest Service Road #10 in the Green Mountains, connects Londonderry with Danby. It rises some 1500ft from the Danby side and a little less from Londonderry. We parked in Londonderry today. The plan was I would ride with Cathy until we got to FS10, then take off, go over the top and all the way down the other side, then back up and over again and try to beat Cathy back to the car. Cathy would turn around at the top and not descend any of the other side.
A few miles of pavement got us started. Then it was dirt the rest of the way. I like these narrow lane-and-a-half seasonal roads. The gravel was in decent shape. I was riding my Ridley 'cross bike with 35mm knobbies, Cathy was on her commuter bike with wide city slicks. It is 5.5 miles up east side of FS10. I big-ringed most of it. Great tempo workout. Didn't see a single car on the way up. The other side down to Danby rolls a bit before it really takes off downward. The lower couple miles are paved and near 10% grade. I hadn't climbed that side before and failed to realize how long it would take me to get back to top. I had no chance of scooping Cathy up on the return.
Came close though. Cathy had reached the car just a few minutes before I did. The double hump took me nearly 2.5hrs to cover the 37 miles and 4000+ feet of climbing. Cathy thought that was a reasonable climb. No traffic and quite gradual. Earlier I had contemplated taking Cathy all the way over the other side. She would have hated me the rest of the weekend. The lower couple miles are a spanker, as shown below.
After dinner, we took a walking stroll through town and over to the Grafton Ponds trails. Looks like primo XC ski network, and some fairly technical MTB trails cris-crossing the network too. Have to check those out some other time when properly equipped. Next up will be a 70+ mile ride south of here, hitting the dirt Kelly Stand pass and FS71, another long, dirt, seasonal road I've yet to ride. Call it D2R2/Pikes Peak/Ironcross practice.
Grafton is a very mountainous area. A few main paved roads link up the villages around here, but most back roads are dirt and go up. Cathy is not exactly the hillclimb fiend I am. In fact, it might be better to call her the Anti-Hill Junkie instead of Mrs. Hill Junkie. She's heard enough BS from me over the years about how easy the climb is going to be, or it's just like some other really easy climb. We'll, I finally found a climb we both can enjoy, but not necessarily together.
Mt Tabor Rd, also known as Forest Service Road #10 in the Green Mountains, connects Londonderry with Danby. It rises some 1500ft from the Danby side and a little less from Londonderry. We parked in Londonderry today. The plan was I would ride with Cathy until we got to FS10, then take off, go over the top and all the way down the other side, then back up and over again and try to beat Cathy back to the car. Cathy would turn around at the top and not descend any of the other side.
A few miles of pavement got us started. Then it was dirt the rest of the way. I like these narrow lane-and-a-half seasonal roads. The gravel was in decent shape. I was riding my Ridley 'cross bike with 35mm knobbies, Cathy was on her commuter bike with wide city slicks. It is 5.5 miles up east side of FS10. I big-ringed most of it. Great tempo workout. Didn't see a single car on the way up. The other side down to Danby rolls a bit before it really takes off downward. The lower couple miles are paved and near 10% grade. I hadn't climbed that side before and failed to realize how long it would take me to get back to top. I had no chance of scooping Cathy up on the return.
Looking down the Big Branch Valley on Danby side
Came close though. Cathy had reached the car just a few minutes before I did. The double hump took me nearly 2.5hrs to cover the 37 miles and 4000+ feet of climbing. Cathy thought that was a reasonable climb. No traffic and quite gradual. Earlier I had contemplated taking Cathy all the way over the other side. She would have hated me the rest of the weekend. The lower couple miles are a spanker, as shown below.
After dinner, we took a walking stroll through town and over to the Grafton Ponds trails. Looks like primo XC ski network, and some fairly technical MTB trails cris-crossing the network too. Have to check those out some other time when properly equipped. Next up will be a 70+ mile ride south of here, hitting the dirt Kelly Stand pass and FS71, another long, dirt, seasonal road I've yet to ride. Call it D2R2/Pikes Peak/Ironcross practice.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
I graduated...
...from physical therapy! I had my final orthopedic follow-up visit on Monday. The doctor was quite pleased with recent PT progress. When I asked how much more I will need, he chuckled and said I was past needing PT. I was quite psyched about that on multiple fronts, as $60 of co-pays per week add up after a couple months, and three PT sessions per week cut into riding time. I still have some dorsiflexion to get back. For a while, I was stuck at 12-15 degrees. Then in the last couple weeks I shot up to mid-20's. 20 degrees is considered minimum useful to do normal things. I'm not sure what most athletes have, but I bet it is well over 30 degrees. I will need to continue my stretching routines and icing when swelling occurs.
I got on my rollerskis Saturday. I finally was ready to answer the question of how my ankle would respond to being squeezed in a skate ski boot. I went on a short, flat dead-end road by work. At first, my left ankle was all wonky. My ankle still has a lot of stability strength to get back. But after a couple 1-mile laps, it started to come back to me. My biggest concern were the two pins at the bottom of my tibia. They protrude a little under the knob on the inside of my ankle. This did not seem to bother me at all. I was using my old, completely worn out Salomon boots. I had my best race in these boots last winter. My much newer boots hurt my ankles in precisely the area these pins are located, so I know they will not work. Not even on my good ankle. So what did end up bothering me was a surprise. It was the screws in the plate on the outside of my ankle. These are higher up, in the upper cuff area of the boot. The cuff must necessarily be quite tight. When I removed the boot, you could count screw heads from the bumps in my skin. Time will tell if this is just something I need to get used to, or if it will be a persistent problem. The doctor said the hardware can come out, but only 6-12 months after surgery. The way I see it, I will probably be skiing with the hardware this winter. If I never adapt to it, I'll have surgery in the spring to remove it.
Work has been a bit nuts lately. Coupled with physical therapy and trying to get respectable riding volume in doesn't leave much time for internet. Besides the NEK ride Dave and I did Friday, I got in more great riding over the weekend. Saturday, before going in to work, I met up with Andy, another cyclist from PT that blew out his knee long boarding. We did a 1.6hr semi-recovery ride through Hollis. Sunday I wanted to finish the long trail ride Dave and I hoped to get in Friday. I stayed closer to home, parking at Massabesic Lake near Manchester, NH.
There is an endless supply of singletrack, fireroads and ATV trails in that area. Literally. I think I read somewhere that Trail 15, a winter snowmobile corridor, goes all the way to Canada. You have the FOMBA singletrack, a growing collection of other clandestine singletrack in the area, and a few dirt rail trails to connect things up. I take advantage of all of it.
I find it odd some guys on mountain bikes turn their noses up at anything on dirt that is not technical singletrack, yet pound out mindless miles on pavement with their road bikes. I'd much rather ride tempo on a dirt rail trail with no cars or people than on a busy road. My Massabesic loop is different each time I go there. I usually start by riding around the lake on fireroads and singletrack. This is good for 10 miles. Then I'll hit some portion of FOMBA singletrack. All of it can add something like 15 miles. There's 4 mile Evil FOMBA nearby and several more shorter goodies all in the area. Then Trail 15 is taken north for a lap around Tower Hill Pond, good for another 6 miles. But I often don't stop with a complete lap. I keep heading north on Trail 15, sometimes to Bear Brook State Park, with has 10,000 acres filled with NEMBA built singletrack. FOMBA to Bear Brook is 10-12 miles apart, so round trip alone adds 20-24 miles to your ride. What I like about Trail 15 is you can haul ass on it. It is a bit bony in spots and has plenty of rolling hills. You can put it in your "threshold gear" and leave it there. And leave all the deer flies behind. Way more fun than the road.
The 3.5 mile Fireline Trail in FOMBA is becoming quite the beast. The soil in that area is gravelly. The trail traverses many steep up and downs. With the dry weather this summer, things are becoming quite rutted out. I used to be able to clean this trail with ease, but not anymore. I dabbed more times than I can remember. I wore my lace-up ankle brace again and was glad I did. I jambed my left leg down pretty hard one time.
There's also a huge quarry area west of Trail 15 I've played in a few times. Lots of ATV trails and gravel doubletracks. It is not posted from the back side, but when I popped out on a road one time at a gate the sign made me felt I'd be arrested on the spot. Nothing technical, but huge area to ride in for constant change of scenery. No cars, no people. I rode hard Sunday for four hours straight, never getting tired, ending the ride only to keep a time commitment. Covered over 46 miles, hitting a lot of stuff I never been on before.
A few more nine hour weekends like this will whip me back into shape quickly. Right now my focus is on Colorado at the end of the month. I hope to be able to ride 4-6-hrs per day like I did with Dave this spring in Arizona. A stretch maybe, but I'm feeling more confident that if I pace myself reasonably, it will be quite doable.
I got on my rollerskis Saturday. I finally was ready to answer the question of how my ankle would respond to being squeezed in a skate ski boot. I went on a short, flat dead-end road by work. At first, my left ankle was all wonky. My ankle still has a lot of stability strength to get back. But after a couple 1-mile laps, it started to come back to me. My biggest concern were the two pins at the bottom of my tibia. They protrude a little under the knob on the inside of my ankle. This did not seem to bother me at all. I was using my old, completely worn out Salomon boots. I had my best race in these boots last winter. My much newer boots hurt my ankles in precisely the area these pins are located, so I know they will not work. Not even on my good ankle. So what did end up bothering me was a surprise. It was the screws in the plate on the outside of my ankle. These are higher up, in the upper cuff area of the boot. The cuff must necessarily be quite tight. When I removed the boot, you could count screw heads from the bumps in my skin. Time will tell if this is just something I need to get used to, or if it will be a persistent problem. The doctor said the hardware can come out, but only 6-12 months after surgery. The way I see it, I will probably be skiing with the hardware this winter. If I never adapt to it, I'll have surgery in the spring to remove it.
Taken last week. My right quad and calf are bigger and
more defined, my left ankle and foot still look plump.
I wonder if my left foot skin tone will return to my normal
pasty look?
Work has been a bit nuts lately. Coupled with physical therapy and trying to get respectable riding volume in doesn't leave much time for internet. Besides the NEK ride Dave and I did Friday, I got in more great riding over the weekend. Saturday, before going in to work, I met up with Andy, another cyclist from PT that blew out his knee long boarding. We did a 1.6hr semi-recovery ride through Hollis. Sunday I wanted to finish the long trail ride Dave and I hoped to get in Friday. I stayed closer to home, parking at Massabesic Lake near Manchester, NH.
There is an endless supply of singletrack, fireroads and ATV trails in that area. Literally. I think I read somewhere that Trail 15, a winter snowmobile corridor, goes all the way to Canada. You have the FOMBA singletrack, a growing collection of other clandestine singletrack in the area, and a few dirt rail trails to connect things up. I take advantage of all of it.
I find it odd some guys on mountain bikes turn their noses up at anything on dirt that is not technical singletrack, yet pound out mindless miles on pavement with their road bikes. I'd much rather ride tempo on a dirt rail trail with no cars or people than on a busy road. My Massabesic loop is different each time I go there. I usually start by riding around the lake on fireroads and singletrack. This is good for 10 miles. Then I'll hit some portion of FOMBA singletrack. All of it can add something like 15 miles. There's 4 mile Evil FOMBA nearby and several more shorter goodies all in the area. Then Trail 15 is taken north for a lap around Tower Hill Pond, good for another 6 miles. But I often don't stop with a complete lap. I keep heading north on Trail 15, sometimes to Bear Brook State Park, with has 10,000 acres filled with NEMBA built singletrack. FOMBA to Bear Brook is 10-12 miles apart, so round trip alone adds 20-24 miles to your ride. What I like about Trail 15 is you can haul ass on it. It is a bit bony in spots and has plenty of rolling hills. You can put it in your "threshold gear" and leave it there. And leave all the deer flies behind. Way more fun than the road.
Grannite dome in undisclosed location.
The 3.5 mile Fireline Trail in FOMBA is becoming quite the beast. The soil in that area is gravelly. The trail traverses many steep up and downs. With the dry weather this summer, things are becoming quite rutted out. I used to be able to clean this trail with ease, but not anymore. I dabbed more times than I can remember. I wore my lace-up ankle brace again and was glad I did. I jambed my left leg down pretty hard one time.
There's also a huge quarry area west of Trail 15 I've played in a few times. Lots of ATV trails and gravel doubletracks. It is not posted from the back side, but when I popped out on a road one time at a gate the sign made me felt I'd be arrested on the spot. Nothing technical, but huge area to ride in for constant change of scenery. No cars, no people. I rode hard Sunday for four hours straight, never getting tired, ending the ride only to keep a time commitment. Covered over 46 miles, hitting a lot of stuff I never been on before.
46 miles with a bit of everything.
A few more nine hour weekends like this will whip me back into shape quickly. Right now my focus is on Colorado at the end of the month. I hope to be able to ride 4-6-hrs per day like I did with Dave this spring in Arizona. A stretch maybe, but I'm feeling more confident that if I pace myself reasonably, it will be quite doable.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Best of NEK
Dave and I both having Fridays off, we planned a trek north to hit the Northeast Kingdom trails of Vermont on Friday. Conditions were less than ideal. The area got drenched with 5" of rain during the week, my favorite trails on Burke Mountain were closed, and there was a moderate chance of rain on Friday. We had a work around plan. We would do the mostly dirt climb to the summit of East Mountain first, which would take 2-3 hours, then hit the Darling Hill trail system, which was open.
It was much warmer than we expected when we got there. The sun was coming out. Things were looking positive. Then we scored a major bonus. The trails director said he was opening the Burke Mountain trail system. We were probably the first to be told. Reports coming back said the trails were drying out nicely. And NEK just put a video up on their website stating the Burke trails would be closed all weekend. So scratch a dirt road mountain climb. We were hitting singletrack.
There are many opportunities to ride beyond your abilities at NEK. The trails have that magical flow that beg for speed. Throw in moist roots and rocks, you could easily fold yourself around a tree. I still haven't gained enough confidence to ride at the level of risk I used to before breaking my ankle. This is why I picked up a lace-up ankle support. I got a fairly stout one. If I had to dismount over the bars, I wanted to be sure it was nearly impossible to roll my recovering ankle. I think I need the ankle support more as a psychological support than physical ankle support. It worked.
Pain Cave Dave put the hurts on me good climbing up the new Burnham Down trail. I think it is intended as a downhill run for those that shuttle up to the summit, you know, the gravity challenged set. It is a two way trail, however. It climbs marvelously. It provides a nice singletrack route to the top side of Moose Alley trails, where I typically hammered pavement in the past. There was an occasional mud puddle here and there, but the trails were firm and dry for the most part. I've ridden here before when there wasn't a recent closure and conditions were much sloppier.
Once half way up Burke Mountain, we began the miles and miles of Moose Alley trails back down. This is my favorite stuff to ride at NEK. Great flow, minimal work, and insane speed in good conditions. Every now and then, dark clouds would move through, we'd feel a couple drops, then the sun would come out again. As long as this pattern held, we'd be all set. Our goal was to ride about 5 hours/50 miles.
After finishing up Burke Mtn trails, we took White School/Nose Dive back to the village center to top off water. Then it was off to the massive Darling Hill trail system.
There are several must-hit trails in the Darling Hill system. These are Coronary Bypass, Tap-and-Die, Sidewinder and others. We were picking these off at a furious pace. Having about three hours in the legs, I was beginning to lose contact with Pain Cave Dave on the climbs and some of the hairy bits. I'm keenly aware now that mishaps happen when you are tired and bike handling becomes sloppy. Some of these trails, like Pasture Point, throw nothing but non-stop roots at you. Your tires don't even touch dirt in spots. This takes a toll and takes focus.
After finishing Old Webb's, the skies grew wicked dark and opened up on us. The temperature plummeted. This killed Dave's buzz, riding a new Yeti and all, but I secretly thought "score!", saved by the rain. We were about as far from the car as you can get on the trails. We worked our way back on the mostly doubletrack VAST trail. Of course, you can't ride past Kitchel without bombing it. The 20 minute deluge was actually petering out by the time we got there, so we headed down. Neither of us doubled any of the doubles or cleared any of the table tops. I never would. Dave might have, had the surface not been juicified.
Back in the village, there is now a prominent sign stating no bike washing in river. I guess that really makes environmental sense, although there was nary a microgram of lube left on our drivetrains. We could take buckets of water up with brushes provided by East Burke Sports to clean our bikes in the grass. Laying down in the river to degunk the bodies was nice though.
We no more than packed up the bikes and the sun came back out. Bummer. At least I would make my physical therapy appointment now. We logged about 32 miles in 3.6hrs riding time. It was mostly black diamond singletrack. Even though the rain cut our ride short, we hit all the stuff we went there for. It was well worth it. More importantly, I've nearly lost my mental handicap riding greasy, technical terrain. This was the first time I rode at NEK without summitting one of the big mountains there. Slacking off in my old age.
It was much warmer than we expected when we got there. The sun was coming out. Things were looking positive. Then we scored a major bonus. The trails director said he was opening the Burke Mountain trail system. We were probably the first to be told. Reports coming back said the trails were drying out nicely. And NEK just put a video up on their website stating the Burke trails would be closed all weekend. So scratch a dirt road mountain climb. We were hitting singletrack.
There are many opportunities to ride beyond your abilities at NEK. The trails have that magical flow that beg for speed. Throw in moist roots and rocks, you could easily fold yourself around a tree. I still haven't gained enough confidence to ride at the level of risk I used to before breaking my ankle. This is why I picked up a lace-up ankle support. I got a fairly stout one. If I had to dismount over the bars, I wanted to be sure it was nearly impossible to roll my recovering ankle. I think I need the ankle support more as a psychological support than physical ankle support. It worked.
Pain Cave Dave put the hurts on me good climbing up the new Burnham Down trail. I think it is intended as a downhill run for those that shuttle up to the summit, you know, the gravity challenged set. It is a two way trail, however. It climbs marvelously. It provides a nice singletrack route to the top side of Moose Alley trails, where I typically hammered pavement in the past. There was an occasional mud puddle here and there, but the trails were firm and dry for the most part. I've ridden here before when there wasn't a recent closure and conditions were much sloppier.
Once half way up Burke Mountain, we began the miles and miles of Moose Alley trails back down. This is my favorite stuff to ride at NEK. Great flow, minimal work, and insane speed in good conditions. Every now and then, dark clouds would move through, we'd feel a couple drops, then the sun would come out again. As long as this pattern held, we'd be all set. Our goal was to ride about 5 hours/50 miles.
Summit of Burke part way down Moose Alley trails.
After finishing up Burke Mtn trails, we took White School/Nose Dive back to the village center to top off water. Then it was off to the massive Darling Hill trail system.
There are several must-hit trails in the Darling Hill system. These are Coronary Bypass, Tap-and-Die, Sidewinder and others. We were picking these off at a furious pace. Having about three hours in the legs, I was beginning to lose contact with Pain Cave Dave on the climbs and some of the hairy bits. I'm keenly aware now that mishaps happen when you are tired and bike handling becomes sloppy. Some of these trails, like Pasture Point, throw nothing but non-stop roots at you. Your tires don't even touch dirt in spots. This takes a toll and takes focus.
After finishing Old Webb's, the skies grew wicked dark and opened up on us. The temperature plummeted. This killed Dave's buzz, riding a new Yeti and all, but I secretly thought "score!", saved by the rain. We were about as far from the car as you can get on the trails. We worked our way back on the mostly doubletrack VAST trail. Of course, you can't ride past Kitchel without bombing it. The 20 minute deluge was actually petering out by the time we got there, so we headed down. Neither of us doubled any of the doubles or cleared any of the table tops. I never would. Dave might have, had the surface not been juicified.
Back in the village, there is now a prominent sign stating no bike washing in river. I guess that really makes environmental sense, although there was nary a microgram of lube left on our drivetrains. We could take buckets of water up with brushes provided by East Burke Sports to clean our bikes in the grass. Laying down in the river to degunk the bodies was nice though.
We no more than packed up the bikes and the sun came back out. Bummer. At least I would make my physical therapy appointment now. We logged about 32 miles in 3.6hrs riding time. It was mostly black diamond singletrack. Even though the rain cut our ride short, we hit all the stuff we went there for. It was well worth it. More importantly, I've nearly lost my mental handicap riding greasy, technical terrain. This was the first time I rode at NEK without summitting one of the big mountains there. Slacking off in my old age.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Dubious Success
This weekend saw another big step-up in the road to recovery. The 4NaaP ride the previous weekend didn't kill me, so I figured I should try harder. The Jay Peak double pass/Smugglers Notch loop was looking attractive. I think of all the dubious training value rides I do, this ranks about third in dubiousness, behind D2R2 and 6-gaps. It's not so much the distance (116 miles) or the vertical (over 10,000ft), but how the vertical is presented. There are numerous 100-200ft rollers along the route, many at double-digit grades. Human nature is to power over these things, but this has an accumulative effect.
No doubt all readers from this corner of the country experienced the best riding weather so far this season. It was perfect this weekend. Glen Fraser and I drove up to Stowe, Vermont early to capitalize on the nippy morning air. It was just warm enough up there to not need arm warmers.
Glen was chomping at the bit on some of the early rollers on the route. I held back. I learned my lesson the prior weekend. I still have many weeks of work cut out before I can start riding aggressively again. I had no qualms about letting Glen do much of the work on flatter parts.
The first notable climb is Hazen's Notch. It is gravel up and over. It was recently graded on the climb side, but the tire patches in the center of the road were decent to ride on. The descent was uber hairball though. It is steep and the rock hard gravel was very bumpy. Throw in some random erosion ruts around blind corners and rednecks in pickups coming up, it was white knuckles for sure. We both escaped without flats or getting tied down in the bed of a pickup as a trophy kill.
Hazen's dumps out in Montgomery, which has a well stocked local grocery store. This would be our first of two stops, about one third of the way into the ride. Next up, we hit some more steeply rolling terrain with great views along Rickford Road. This terminates in a fast descent with incredible views over the border into Canada.
The serious work of the ride begins next, with back to back several mile long climbs. The first climb parallels the Canadian border, skirting the northern flank of Jay Peak. I'm not aware of any name given the pass the road sneaks through. Rt 105 is in rough shape going up, the reason I prefer to ride the loop in this direction. The descent is pure bliss, four miles of monotonic descent on buttery smooth pavement.
We cut across on Cross Road to immediately climb the southern pass of Jay Peak, Rt 242, the main access road to the ski area. This climbs much more aggressively. There's a half mile approaching the peak that hovers in the 10-14% range. From here, it is all down hill back to Montgomery again. You can easily go over 50mph on this one, although the pavement is a bit frost heaved.
Back in Montgomery, we refueled at the same grocery store. A couple years ago on a 6-gaps ride, Andy Gardner turned me on to Sardines as a way of getting some needed protein in such long efforts. They go down surprisingly well. Must be the sodium. The deal was, I spilled the oil on my gloves. I smelled like a dead fish. I burped up dead fish for a while too. Only 41 miles to go.
Up to this point, I was riding quite conservatively. Cramping up like I did the previous weekend after 90 miles would be catastrophic on this ride. The biggest climb started over 100 miles into the ride. I was feeling pretty good though, so I planned to empty the tank on Smugglers Notch.
There is a lot of rolling climbing en route to Smuggs. It is hard to find a rhythm on it. The last time I did this ride, DaveP got somewhat annoyed by the constant up/down up/down. The road has been fully reconstructed, there was negligible traffic, and the scenery was continuously good on the eyes. What's not to like about it?
Finally we reach Jeffersonville, the northern base of Smugglers Notch. One last bite of fuel, then it was hammer time. I went out pretty hard. Maybe two thirds of the way up, I didn't feel so good and thought I made a mistake. I made the summit without bonking or cramping though. The tank was very nearly empty. I saved my hardest effort for the very end of the ride. Solobreak would have been proud.
It is pretty much all downhill from top of Smuggs back to Stowe. The top part is the most unique mountain pass road in all of New England. Single lane, weaving around and under giant boulders. Those signs at the bottom stating the road is not suitable for semi's - they're serious.
I finished with 6:55hrs on the bike computer. Like an idiot, I forgot to restart the Garmin right away after one of the stops, losing about 7 minutes and a couple hundred feet of vertical. Topo gives 12,900ft of vert for the ride, the Garmin gives around 10,200ft based on barometric altimeter. Truth is probably in between 10,200 and 11,000ft. I was three minutes faster than riding solo in 2007 but 17 minutes slower than riding with Dave in 2008. I was thoroughly satisfied with the ride. I'm now thinking I may be able to tackle the full D2R2 ride in three weeks.
Looking south. Jay Peak is prominent mountain in foreground.
Canadian border runs along bottom of image.
No doubt all readers from this corner of the country experienced the best riding weather so far this season. It was perfect this weekend. Glen Fraser and I drove up to Stowe, Vermont early to capitalize on the nippy morning air. It was just warm enough up there to not need arm warmers.
Glen was chomping at the bit on some of the early rollers on the route. I held back. I learned my lesson the prior weekend. I still have many weeks of work cut out before I can start riding aggressively again. I had no qualms about letting Glen do much of the work on flatter parts.
The first notable climb is Hazen's Notch. It is gravel up and over. It was recently graded on the climb side, but the tire patches in the center of the road were decent to ride on. The descent was uber hairball though. It is steep and the rock hard gravel was very bumpy. Throw in some random erosion ruts around blind corners and rednecks in pickups coming up, it was white knuckles for sure. We both escaped without flats or getting tied down in the bed of a pickup as a trophy kill.
Glen heading into Hazen's Notch.
Hazen's dumps out in Montgomery, which has a well stocked local grocery store. This would be our first of two stops, about one third of the way into the ride. Next up, we hit some more steeply rolling terrain with great views along Rickford Road. This terminates in a fast descent with incredible views over the border into Canada.
The serious work of the ride begins next, with back to back several mile long climbs. The first climb parallels the Canadian border, skirting the northern flank of Jay Peak. I'm not aware of any name given the pass the road sneaks through. Rt 105 is in rough shape going up, the reason I prefer to ride the loop in this direction. The descent is pure bliss, four miles of monotonic descent on buttery smooth pavement.
We cut across on Cross Road to immediately climb the southern pass of Jay Peak, Rt 242, the main access road to the ski area. This climbs much more aggressively. There's a half mile approaching the peak that hovers in the 10-14% range. From here, it is all down hill back to Montgomery again. You can easily go over 50mph on this one, although the pavement is a bit frost heaved.
Near summit of Jay Peak north pass, Rt 105.
Back in Montgomery, we refueled at the same grocery store. A couple years ago on a 6-gaps ride, Andy Gardner turned me on to Sardines as a way of getting some needed protein in such long efforts. They go down surprisingly well. Must be the sodium. The deal was, I spilled the oil on my gloves. I smelled like a dead fish. I burped up dead fish for a while too. Only 41 miles to go.
Looking back down Rt 242 Jay Peak south pass.
Up to this point, I was riding quite conservatively. Cramping up like I did the previous weekend after 90 miles would be catastrophic on this ride. The biggest climb started over 100 miles into the ride. I was feeling pretty good though, so I planned to empty the tank on Smugglers Notch.
There is a lot of rolling climbing en route to Smuggs. It is hard to find a rhythm on it. The last time I did this ride, DaveP got somewhat annoyed by the constant up/down up/down. The road has been fully reconstructed, there was negligible traffic, and the scenery was continuously good on the eyes. What's not to like about it?
Finally we reach Jeffersonville, the northern base of Smugglers Notch. One last bite of fuel, then it was hammer time. I went out pretty hard. Maybe two thirds of the way up, I didn't feel so good and thought I made a mistake. I made the summit without bonking or cramping though. The tank was very nearly empty. I saved my hardest effort for the very end of the ride. Solobreak would have been proud.
Coming into Smugglers Notch from the north.
It is pretty much all downhill from top of Smuggs back to Stowe. The top part is the most unique mountain pass road in all of New England. Single lane, weaving around and under giant boulders. Those signs at the bottom stating the road is not suitable for semi's - they're serious.
Top of Smugglers Notch.
I finished with 6:55hrs on the bike computer. Like an idiot, I forgot to restart the Garmin right away after one of the stops, losing about 7 minutes and a couple hundred feet of vertical. Topo gives 12,900ft of vert for the ride, the Garmin gives around 10,200ft based on barometric altimeter. Truth is probably in between 10,200 and 11,000ft. I was three minutes faster than riding solo in 2007 but 17 minutes slower than riding with Dave in 2008. I was thoroughly satisfied with the ride. I'm now thinking I may be able to tackle the full D2R2 ride in three weeks.
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